"3* 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING 
OF CHILDREN 



By 

MRS, JOEL SWARTZ 




For Sale by the 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 

1122 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia 



It 



» 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING 
OF CHILDREN 



By -/ 

MRS. JOEL SWARTZ 



i 




c -. «■ o 






For Sale by the 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 

1122 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia 



kC<V%\ 



THE UbRAHY CF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

DEC 31 1902 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS CO XXc. No 

^ / 3 7f 

COPY B. ' 




Copyright 1902 
by Mrs. Joel Swartz 



• « 

« • *> 



INTRODUCTION 

By CHARLES H. RICHARDS, D.D., Pastor of the Central Conire- 
gational Church of Philadelphia 




HAVE read with deep interest the excellent 
paper on "The Religious Training of Chil- 
dren," by Mrs. Joel Swartz. The Sub- 
ject is of supreme importance because it 
is fundamental. Church and State, home and so- 
ciety, business prosperity and national welfare, 
must be built upon this foundation of right charac- 
ter. The future pivots upon this. It will be bright 
or dark according to the sort of men and women we 
develop in our homes and schools. We must have 
solid rock-foundation if we are to build securely; 
and the rock is the Eternal Truth of God which the 
Christian religion gives us. The large experience 
and ripe wisdom of the author of this booklet make 
her conclusions and suggestions of great value. 
Parents and teachers may find inspiration and help- 
ful guidance here. Mothers' Clubs and Children's 
Aid Societies may well ponder the principles set 
forth clearly in these pages. This is. a topic worthy 
of the thoughtful study of all who are interested in 
the betterment of mankind, and in the revived in- 
terest in it, manifested in so many quarters today, 
we see one of the brightest tokens of progress to- 
ward that ideal life to which our Lord has sum- 
rnoned us. 

Charles H. Richards. 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF 
CHILDREN 



By MRS. JOEL SWARTZ 

Train up a child in the way he should go and 
when he is old he will not depart from it. — Prov. 
22:6. 

Some have doubted the reliability of the promise 
in this passage of Scripture because the children of 
Christian parents do not always become the fol- 
lowers of Christ. Yet candid thought will make 
all confess that the failure must be in the training 
and not in the divine promise. It must be that the 
parent has not comprehended the full meaning of 
the word train or the necessity of beginning the 
training with the child's earliest years, while its na- 
ture is still so plastic that it may be moulded into a 
true Christian character, or some outside influences 
have prevented it from being reared up in the way 
in which it should go. 

Statistics show that a large proportion of young 

people have not been found in the Church and do 

not come to Christ in later life, and that crime has 

increased more rapidly than does the population. 

5 



These are sad facts which make it evident that the 
church and parents should be more zealous in ef- 
forts to bring children to Christ while yet very 
young. But often, alas, even religious parents are 
found proclaiming by speech or manner that they 
are making but little effort to bring their children 
while yet of tender years into a saving knowledge 
of Christ! And even when their children are so 
impressed by the Holy Spirit that they yearn for 
spiritual food, they are by cold neglect turned off, 
as it were, with only a stone for bread. Thus we 
find that a large proportion of children of Christian 
parents are being denied their birthright, turned 
over to grow up in the great army of those living 
out of the Church, and thus exposed, may fall an 
easy prey to snares set for them by the enemy of 
souls, in the form of infidelity, the saloon, the 
gambling den and the brothel; evils which, in some 
form, taint so many characters not resting on the 
Rock Christ Jesus. 

With the open saloon protected by the govern- 
ment in its work of making vagrants and criminals, 
it seems impossible for the percentage of criminals 
to be decreased; yet we know that righteousness 
will eventually prevail. The Church is steadily 

6 



gaining. Rev. Dr. H. K. Carroll, in his religious 
statistics of the United States for 1901, shows that 
there was a gain in church membership, including 
the Catholic, of 730,027, a per cent, of 2.67, a gain 
greater than that of the population, the annual rate 
of which for the same year was 2.18 per cent. 

That there is so much gain with all the evils sur- 
rounding the Church is a cause for encouragement, 
yet as a nation we are, to a great extent, a non- 
church going people. Josiah Strong, D.D., in his 
book, "The New Era," based on the census of 1890, 
gives carefully prepared statistics and estimates that 
should be read by every Christian. He says, page 
204, "Careful investigations have been made in city 
and country which give us definite knowledge. 
Ffom these investigations it appears that less than 
half of the people profess to attend church. In 
Vermont, a few years ago, forty-four towns, be- 
lieved to be above the average of the State in 
church attendance, were carefully canvassed. All 
were counted attendants who professed to be, and 
all children and invalids in church-going families 
were reckoned attendants; and yet only 49 per cent, 
of the people were church-goers." He shows that 
careful investigation in New York State and others, 

some in the South, brought no better results. 

7 



Rev. William P. Swartz, Ph.D., in a pamphlet, 
"Young Men and the Churches/' written in 1890, 
and after the most careful investigations, says : "It 
is a distressing fact, that just as conspicuously as 
the young men are absent from the churches, they 
are present in the penitentiaries. The United States 
census shows that from 1870 to 1880 the popula- 
tion increased 30.1 per cent, and the prisoners in- 
creased 78.1 per cent. The churches publish their 
gains every year or two but the devil does not her- 
ald his victories. In spite of the growth of Christi- 
anity crime is terribly prevalent. It is more than 
threatening a civilization which has the opportunity 
of the ages for honoring God and blessing men." 

From the great army living without Christ, the 
ranks of the tramps and vagrants in the United 
States, estimated to be a hundred thousand, and the 
large army of convicted criminals, are steadily be- 
ing filled up as one after another drops out, "dead 
in trespasses and in sin," into an awful eternity. 
These facts should quicken the Church, and espe- 
cially parents, to a greater degree of earnest, wise 
effort for the children. We must recognize the fact 
that children are capable of growing up into Chris- 
tian lives, and set ourselves earnestly to work to 
bring them into a knowledge of the saving power of 

8 



Jesus while their hearts and minds are yet open to 
receive Him. 

The Church needs to emphasize the possibility of 
child piety as the only means of safety for the indi- 
vidual and for the nation. Throw about the chil- 
dren the advantages of the Sunday-school, the Jun- 
ior Society of Christian Endeavor, and attendance 
upon regular services of the church and the pastor's 
class for religious instruction and provide these ad- 
vantages not only for the religious training of the 
children of the Church, but also for those not of 
Christian families. For the neglected class of chil- 
dren provide industrial mission training, mission 
Sunday-schools and employ consecrated women to 
do work among them from house to house. 

Let the pulpit emphasize the great responsibility 
of the parent whose duty to the child cannot be 
transferred to any other agency. Let the minister 
ever hold in mind a consciousness that no amount 
of faithful care for his flock and interest in others 
can excuse him for neglecting the more binding 
and sacred duty of training up his own children in 
the way they should go and thus the more surely 
save them and by his example help other parents. 
Especially do the children need the combined inter- 
est and effort of both parents to bring them safely 

9 



on the journey of life. It matters not how faithful 
and competent the mother may be, she cannot, 
while the father is exerting an influence over the 
children, as he must while he lives, relieve him of 
this responsibility. Yet the mother, being more 
with the young child, should exercise more con- 
stant, earnest care for its spiritual nature. Especial- 
ly should the spirit of prayer and dedication hover 
over the child from its earliest existence until it has 
arrived at well-matured years and a well established 
Christian character. 

A mother, having raised a large family of sons, 
all useful in the Church, was asked how she man- 
aged to get all of them to become Christians. She 
replied : "I have been particular to bring them to 
Christ before they were seven years old, for I al- 
ways felt that if I failed in this, possibly they 
would then grow so much away from my influence 
that I might never succeed." 

As parents let us have such faith in the regenera- 
tion of our children while yet very young that we 
will not fail to see that their faces are set in the 
right direction from infancy and so kept by care 
and the Holy Spirit that they will never need to be 
turned about, regenerated and not needing to be 
converted as they reach riper years. 

10 



Henry Ward Beecher said: "The religious in- 
struction of the child cannot begin too early and it 
is properly parental work. As I look back at my 
childhood I can see that I never at any later period 
had a fuller, deeper and more conscious sense of 
sinfulness, or my need of God or my aptitude to- 
wards things spiritual, than when I was six years 
old. The home in which I was brought up was full 
of religious influences and yet I was led to struggle 
with difficulties and doubt." He also expressed re- 
gret that he was not led at that early age to Christ, 
and he adds: "I stuck fast on the rock of divine 
decrees. I thought if I were born to be saved I 
would be saved, and if I were not I could not be." 

How sad it is that a child should be left to 
struggle with such a difficulty! The parent is 
placed over the child's spiritual self as well as its 
physical and mental being to shield and develop, 
by God's help, the entire child, and is commanded 
to train it up in the way it should go, and encour- 
aged by the precious promise added: "And when 
he is old he will not depart from it." 

The command is to "train up a child," not train it 
after it has grown up, but train it into a religious 
life, "the way it should go," while growing up. Not 
simply teach it but so train that it will have a deep 

ll 



consciousness of sinfulness and weakness and of the 
loving power of Christ to help. When we consider 
the weakness and lack of wisdom of the parents, 
the ignorance and waywardness of the child and the 
various hindering influences brought to bear upon 
its character, we are led to exclaim, Who is suffi- 
cient for so great a responsibility ! 

A careful study of this subject has impressed me 
very deeply that the most common mistake which 
is made is that of not leading children while yet of 
tender years to recognize Christ as their own per- 
sonal Saviour. 

As an encouragement to this end, I present some 
methods for parents which have been tried, and 
have borne good fruit. 
% f It is only when we feel a keen sense of the diffi- 
culties and of our own weakness and have a firm 
faith in divine help, earnestly sought, that we may 
hope to "train up a child in the way he should go," 
and claim the precious promise: "When he is old 
he will not depart from it." We must not only in- 
struct a child how it should go but train it to go 
that way. Teach it by "precept upon precept, line 
upon line," and by that more forcible power, a truly 
consistent, godly example, to reverence God, and 
to observe the moral code. Yet the child may 

12 



learn this and still have its spiritual nature undevel- 
oped, dwarfed, unable to grasp that wonderful pow- 
er which is able to create a new heart and give a 
new life of submission to the Holy Spirit. It 
should not only learn to look upon Christ as the 
loving, forgiving Saviour of the world but also to 
look within and realize its own weakness and great 
need and then to trust Christ fully as its own 
Saviour. 

% ^ The time set apart for asking the blessing at the 
table and for family prayer may be made especially 
helpful. An elder, though having a high sense of 
the dignity which should attend the outward ob- 
servance of religion, said: "I never want my chil- 
dren to remember a period when they did not ask 
a blessing at the table." And both this elder and 
a minister, we sometimes visit, frequently request 
their children to ask a blessing at the table, which, 
although done in child language and accent, is 
ever treated by the parents with the gravity and 
reverence due such a service. 

Several years ago the writer was a guest at the 
home of this minister, a city pastor, who though 
greatly taxed by the many claims of his position, 
realizes that his first duty is to his own children. 

His methods of interesting them in the daily family 

13 



gathering for prayer could well serve as an example 
for many others. He had two little boys who were 
old enough to be interested, the older having 
passed his fourth birthday, and both having learned 
to lisp some of the words of Christ and some songs 
of praise to Him. One morning, instead of reading 
the Scriptures, each member of the family, includ- 
ing the domestic helper and the two little boys, re- 
cited a passage of Scripture. Another morning 
they were asked what they would like to have father 
read about. The younger boy said, "About Sam- 
uel.'' Then came the question, "Shall I read about 
him when he was a little boy or when he was a big 
man?" The older boy replied: "When he was a 
big man." After the reading the father made some 
comment upon the Bible as being a big letter from 
God, teaching us to be obedient to Him as was 
Samuel. Another morning the boys were asked 
what they would like to sing and with a little help 
soon made choice of a hymn in the singing of 
which they engaged heartily. Always the greater 
part of the prayer was expressed in such simple lan- 
guage, that the little ones could understand and ap- 
preciate this part of the service as not being "dry," 

and they listened attentively and reverently, though 

14 



not with the relaxation of muscles which would en- 
sure perfect quiet of little hands and feet, 
t Later, when this four-year-old boy became 
eleven, he went to the room of a guest in his home, 
and invited her to come to prayers. He told her 
that his parents had been unexpectedly called away 
on an early train, and said : "We always have family 
prayers when they are gone for we need it all the 
more when they are not here to tell us how to do." 
It was a rainy morning. He said in his prayer: 
"Even though we do not have sushine from the sky, 
may we have sunshine in our hearts." The two 
younger brothers took part in the service and all 
was done in the spirit of faith and reverence. A 
year later these boys were visiting a friend. The 
oldest one took a brotherly oversight over the 
other two. At the table he said to the brother next 
to him in age, "Brother, I think mother would not 
like you to eat another buckwheat cake." Al- 
though the brother w r as just going to take one, 
and with a keen appetite, his religious principles 
prevailed, he ate bread instead, and without a 
murmur. 

i When all the members of the family are inter- 
ested in a daily service of family worship and the 
mother's earnest, pleading and praising voice is 

15 



also frequently heard to ascend from this holy 
scene, where the father properly takes the lead, 
then may we look for a united, happy family in 
which the very atmosphere serves in the favorable 
development of the spiritual nature of the child. 
If every child could grow up in such a home then 
would the "coming Church" soon be here and be a 
glorious Church indeed. Such helps as these with 
the constant example of an earnest Christian life, 
would serve as do the morning sunlight and gentle 

A 

dews to a growing plant, in invigorating the better 
nature of the child. 



16 



TRAINING BY PUNISHMENT, 

How important that we lead our children while 
very young to abide under the guiding influence 
of the blessed Saviour and so avert very largely the 
punishments which would otherwise be necessary ! 

In the careful training of our children we find 
qualities, not pleasing to God, will appear, or some 
which are not bad will develop too much to make 
the character well-rounded, and so the parent will 
need to restrain the appetite or the temper or to 
bend the will, with care not to break it, but so as 
to give force in the right direction. Sometimes to 
this end punishment must be resorted to in order 
sufficiently to impress the child with the disap- 
proval of the parent and of God. 

In confirmation of this view I am glad to quote 
the following from the able and scholarly address 
of Rev. Dr. C. H. Richards before the National 
Council of Congregational Churches at Portland, 
1901, now published and entitled, "Spiritual Nur- 
ture of Children." He says: "A lawless, reckless 
boy, refusing the restraints of the home, will nat- 
urally become a lawless, reckless man, hating all 
restraint of God or man, and will be a dangerous 

17 



citizen. A firm, wise, loving control, which will 
tame and train the wayward life into self-mastery, 
is one of the greatest blessings childhood can 
have." 

Dear parent, I speak earnestly to you, not of 
mere untried theories, but as a mother having had 
my heart stirred by the needs of my own seven little 
ones and as having thought, felt and experienced 
much during all the years that the five who live 
were growing up as Christians and into their pres- 
ent places of usefulness for Christ. And now, 
while we recognize the proverb that "the rod" of 
correction should not be spared, experience and a 
due appreciation of the worth and dignity of a little 
child make it evident that "the rod" need not be 
a stick to be efficient as a correcting influence. 

The former school teacher and distinguished 
poet, Charles M. Dickinson, Consul-General to 
Turkey, and who aided in the liberation of Miss 
Ellen M. Stone, in a poem of rare beauty and ten- 
derness, "The Children," says: 

"They are idols of hearts and of households, 

They are angels of God in disguise; 
His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, 

His glory still gleams in their eyes; 
O, these truants from home and from heaven, 

They have made me more manly and mild! 
And I know now how Jesus could liken 

The kingdom of God to a child. 

18 



"The twig is so easily bended, 

I have banished the rule and the rod, 
I have taught them the goodness of knowledge, 

They have taught me the goodness of God; 
My heart is a dungeon of darkness, 

Where I shut them from breaking a rule; 
My frown is sufficient correction; 

My love is the law of the school.' ' 

In the beautiful tribute which the Rev. Frank 
Dewitt Talmage paid his distinguished father, he 
said: "There never was in America a happier or 
more prayerful home than that of which he was the 
head. My father never lifted a hand to strike a 
blow, yet he ruled his children with a rod stronger 
than one made out of iron. It was the rod of love. 
. . . Family prayers were not to us a meaningless 
formality. We felt that our dear father was taking 
us to the throne of grace, as Joseph the Good, 
brought his brethren into the throne room of the 
Egyptian king." 

Rev. Jacob Abbott, D. D., the distinguished 
author of over two hundred books, in his excellent 
work "Gentle Measures in the Management of 
Young Children," is opposed to the corporal pun- 
ishment of children and shows better methods for 
securing obedience. Speaking of "bodily punish- 
ment," he says : "The child may be whipped or tied 

to the bedpost and kept in a constrained and un- 

19 



comfortable position for a long time, ... or pun- 
ished by the infliction of other bodily suffering. 
There is no doubt that there is a tendency in such 
treatment to correct or cure the fault. But meas- 
ures like these, whether successful or not, are cer- 
tainly violent measures. They shock the whole 
nervous system, sometimes with the excitement of 
terror, and pain always, and probably with that of 
resentment and anger. In some cases this excite- 
ment is extreme. The excessively delicate organi- 
zation of the brain through which such agitations 
reach the sensorium, and which in children of an 
early age, is in its most tender and sensitive state 
of development, is subject to a most intense and 
violent agitation. The evil effects of this excessive 
cerebral action may, perhaps, pass entirely away in 
a few hours, and leave no trace of injury behind; 
but then, on the other hand, there is certain reason 
to fear that such commotions, especially if often 
repeated, tend to impede the regular and healthful 
development of the organs, and that they may be- 
come the origin of derangements, or of actual dis- 
organizations, resulting very seriously in future 
years." 

Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher speaks of her hus- 
band as gradually brought from the old time and 

20 



severe methods to the gentler discipline of training 
children with the omission of the rod in its literal 
meaning. 

Robert J. Burdette, in his excellent article on 
'The Father and His Boy," published in the La- 
dies' Home Journal, April, 1894, says: "Of course 
there must be punishment for offences . . . yet I do 
not believe in the rod. . . . We are a busy people and 
whipping takes up less of our valuable time than 
any other mode of punishment. To reason with 
the boy, to talk it over with him, lovingly and calm- 
ly, might take an hour, maybe two hours. But you 
can whip him in three minutes. ... A man fighting, 
say of one hundred and fifty-two pounds, ought to 
be able to knock a nine-year-old boy out in the first 
round. You go to your work nervous, half 
ashamed. . . . The boy goes his way, with contempt 
writhing in his heart, born of the pain and ache. It 
is the punishment of the savage. It wasn't a hot 
word of scathing and contemptuous rebuke that 
broke bad Peter's heart, that melted it into a foun- 
tain of burning tears; it was a loving, compassion- 
ate, pitying look. . . . Don't be too dignified with 
your boy. The more he loves you and the less he 
fears you, the more profoundly will he respect you." 

Never allow children to be frightened into obe- 

21 



dience from fear of imaginary harm, such as from 
"The Bad Man/' or some "hobgoblin." Domestic 
servants should be carefully instructed not to re- 
sort to such methods. "Fathers, provoke not your 
children to anger lest they be discouraged. " — Col. 
3:21. 

Observation shows that children whose restraints 
were enforced by corporal punishment, are, when 
that restraining power is withdrawn, more likely 
to fall into temptation than those whose training 
has been of a different nature, impressing the heart 
with a fear of displeasing the parent and God, more 
fully than its mind with the fear of physical pain. 

Punishment should never be resorted to unless 
the child refuses to heed a calm and loving reproof 
and sometimes the physical condition is such as to 
forbid good results from either reproof or punish- 
ment. Especially may this be so if the young child 
is weary or sleepy or unwell. In such a case it is 
better, if possible, to pass by any misdeed entirely 
or with only, "My little dear, I am so sorry, I will 
tell you more tomorrow about how sorry I am." 

Often the child may be diverted from its deter- 
mination to do a thing by telling it that it may have 
its choice between that and some one or two other 
things which the parent knows it would desire. T 

22 



have found great aid in using tickets, giving a little 
Scripture card each day that the child was good, 
and a white ticket with a black mark upon it for 
each day that the child failed. At certain intervals 
the good tickets were returned, and a gift which 
was of some value given instead, with the under- 
standing that it was not to pay for being good but 
only to be a reminder. A black mark reminder, 
however, will not always prove sufficient, and there 
are times when punishment must be inflicted. In 
endeavoring to control children without the use of 
corporal punishment, dear parent, let me urge you 
not to resort to scolding or threatening, it can only 
injure the fine sensibilities of the child. Speak low. 
Impatient, harsh or angry tones never did the heart 
of any child good. Keep your own voice and words 
under complete control, ever bearing tones of love 
and gentleness. Never let the punishment be such 
as will distract and lead the child from reflection 
upon its own mental and spiritual weakness to the 
consideration of physical pain, and how it may, in 
obedience to the instinct of self-preservation, avoid 
such punishment when again falling into disobedi- 
ence. 

Let the management be firm and steadily faithful 
but never harsh and severe. 

23 



No doubt that many a child learns to practice de- 
ception, to lie and steal, and hate proper restraint 
from the severity and sometimes injustice of the 
punishment received. There is no case of a child 
having ordinary mental power, living under relig- 
ious influences, which cannot be managed more 
effectually by methods other than corporal pun- 
ishment. It is true the child may be led by instruc- 
tion and physical punishment to look within and 
see that its wilfulness has displeased the parent and 
to avoid pain, be led to greater care not to repeat 
the offence, but even yet its spiritual nature may 
remain in a state of lethargy which leaves the child 
an easy victim for the first real temptation. The 
time soon comes when a child cannot be continually 
shielded by the parent or restrained from sin by the 
dread of punishment, so it needs to be more care- 
fully trained to realize its own weakness and to look 
beyond the parent, to God as an ever-present Be- 
ing who approves or disapproves of all that is 
thought or felt or done and from whom nothing 
can be hid by any device. 

As a punishment, deny the child some coveted 
pleasure or confine it in a corner or in a large, airy, 
comfortable closet where it will not be afraid or in 
a room or to the bed, or in some way deny it liberty 

24 



and diversion of thought until it has reflected upon 
the cause of this loss of liberty and become hum- 
bled. Then approach it quietly and lovingly with 
such questioning as, "My dear little one, mother 
is so sorry that you have done wrong and Jesus, 
the loving Saviour, does not want you to do wrong 
and it makes you very unhappy." As the little one 
is thus led more and more to look in upon its own 
heart it feels deeply convinced that it has sinned, 
and is now prepared for such a question as : "You 
don't want to displease mother and God and make 
your heart worse by doing naughty things, do you, 
and are you not sorry?" A child thus led will inva- 
riably learn to answer from the depths of its heart 
and with much emotion, "Yes, mother, I am sorry 
and I don't want to be bad." Now, train the child 
to feel more and more its own weakness by repeat- 
ing such words as, "I know you don't want to be 
bad, but Satan wants us all to do wrong things and 
we are so weak, even if we do try we will fail unless 
Jesus helps us all the time, and he loves us so very 
much that He wants to help us if we will ask Him 
and try ourselves to obey His teachings. No one, 
not even father and mother, can be really good un- 
less always helped by Jesus." Now, all this is true 
and the child feels its own weakness and through 

25 



it a longing desire to be helped to do what is right. 
Let the parent now ask in an earnest, feeling tone, 
with her own heart deeply impressed with the need 
of divine help : "Don't you want to ask Jesus to for- 
give you and to help you to be good all the time?" 
Dear parent, don't say you must ask for forgiveness 
but rather don't you want to ask for forgiveness 
and thus cultivate a real desire for prayer. The re- 
ply is sure to come and with emotion, "Yes, moth- 
er." Sometimes such a prayer as the child has 
learned, as "Now I lay me down to sleep," does not 
seem to it to meet the case and it will hesi- 
tate, though the mother will have added, "Well, 
ask Him right now, here." As she sees the hesita- 
tion, let her ask, "Would you like to have mother 
help you?" From a yearning heart the reply will 
come, "Yes, mother." "Then you say the words 
right over after me." As the two kneel together, 
with the little head close to the parent in that sa- 
cred place, where the Lord may surely be found, 
the Holy Spirit will descend as a dove of peace and 
both the parent and the child will go forth stronger 
and better able to meet coming trials. 

Thus the deeper nature of the child is developed 
with the rest of its being, and strength is gained by 
which it may ever lay hold of that Power which is 

26 



able to lead it onward and upward. The earnest, 
heartfelt prayer of that child is just as surely heard 
and answered as that of the learned divine, and the 
Holy Spirit will be given to it to lead it safely, even 
though from its lack of experience and the weak- 
ness of human nature it may continue to come 
short of the highest ideal of a Christian life. 

A spirit of prayer may also be cultivated by 
teaching the child regularly to add to its commit- 
ted prayer, petitions from its own heart and in its 
own language. While it is essential for the young 
to learn to pray it is not well to force a child to say 
its prayers contrary to its will. The Lord will not 
recognize or answer such a prayer. It would be 
but mockery and not prayer and must injure rather 
than help the fine sensibilities of the child. 

The writer knew well a baby boy who had much 
will power and who was keenly sensitive to condi- 
tions about him, and so would become excited be- 
yond control. 

In the anxious study of his case which was at- 
tended with much earnest prayer and great con- 
sciousness of parental weakness, the young mother 
was led to feel very deeply that only very gentle 
methods should be used. So for months if any- 
thing occurred which was exciting him she would 

27 



at once leave what she was attending to, whether it 
be a caller in the parlor, or some piece of house- 
hold work which might perhaps be spoiled by leav- 
ing it, and take him in her lap, press him close to 
her in a loving embrace, then talk to him in low, 
gentle tones of anything, till the excitement passed. 
It was not long till this method always served as a 
charm, stilling the storm of excitement and sooth- 
ing his nervous system. Then step by step the little 
fellow learned that it was sinful to yield to such a 
lack of self-control and to pray most earnestly for 
forgiveness and divine help. His prayers were 
surely answered. 

The self-control he acquired even while so young 
as in his third, fourth and fifth years made it evi- 
dent that he had special divine help and all the 
years he was growing up his daily life gave marked 
evidence that he walked with Jesus and was helped 
by His wonderful power. 

His training was not such as to break the will 
which has been of great service to him, giving him 
great energy and enabling him to overcome ob- 
stacles and to practice a remarkable degree of self- 
control. From his infancy he has had a real love 
for prayer and a firm faith in God which gives him 

28 



greater usefulness in the work for humanity in 
which he is engaged. 

These principles apply well to all, as I have seen 
by a large experience, in day school and also in 
schools for neglected boys and girls. Some cases 
have come under my observation in which pupils 
who could not be tolerated in school under the old 
methods of not sparing the rod, became obedient 
and lovable under the milder measures of another 
school. 

One was a lad, nearly grown, who had never 
been retained long in any school because under the 
usual methods he was unmanageable. 

The new teacher felt great sympathy for him and 
gave him special help with his lessons and when he 
was provoked and very provoking she did not chide 
him. 

His heart melted and he became one of the most 
dutiful pupils in the school. He heroically laid aside 
his bad habits and his teacher remembers him as 
onfe whose life has been brightened by gentle 
measures. 

Another case was that of a school of boys with 
a man teacher who scarcely allowed half a day to 
pass without whipping some boy. A new teacher 
took the same school He did not approve of the 

29 




corporal punishment and never made use of it and 
had far better control than the former teacher and 
the pupils made much more rapid and more thor- 
ough progress in their studies. 

The writer reluctantly refers to her own family 
to illustrate the hints given, but is constrained to do 
so in the hope of giving encouragement to others, 
especially to friends who may read these pages. 

A little son, when about five years old, treated a 
playmate rudely. His father took him upon his 
lap and in gentle tones explained to him that it was 
very naughty. I noticed that he came up stairs to 
the large, comfortable closet, where he more than 
once had found time for reflection and supposed 
that his father had sent him there as a punishment. 
Later in the day, however, I learned that the child 
had not been sent, but feeling so keenly his mis- 
deed, had gone himself and remained a long time in 
meditation and prayer for help. And the Lord, has 
helped him to maintain a most courteous, consist- 
ent Christian character from his infancy to adult 
age without, in a single instance, being punished 
by physical pain at home or at school. 

I sympathize deeply with Christian parents who 

have from circumstances beyond their foresight or 

control, been so hindered in the training of their 

30 



children as to fail in the development of strong, 
Christian characters, and I rejoice with those who 
have been able to train up their children in the way 
they should go and reap the blessed assurance that 
they are so well established in the good way that 
when they are old they will not depart from it. 

Let us ever maintain a consciousness that while 
the mysteries of God's plans are beyond the com- 
prehension of learned divines, His plan of sal- 
vation is so simple that it is adapted to every age 
and to every nation and to every period of human 
life, capable of receiving instruction and of learn- 
ing to love Jesus. 

Devon, Pennsylvania. 



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